MichelangeloMichelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni or more commonly known by
his first name
MichelangeloMichelangelo (/ˌmaɪkəlˈændʒəloʊ/;
Italian: [mikeˈlandʒelo di lodoˈviːko ˌbwɔnarˈrɔːti
siˈmoːni]; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564) was an Italian
sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the
High RenaissanceHigh Renaissance born in
the Republic of Florence, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the
development of Western art.[1] Considered by some the greatest living
artist during his lifetime, he has since been described as one of the
greatest artists of all time.[1] Despite making few forays beyond the
arts, his artistic versatility was of such a high order that he is
often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal
RenaissanceRenaissance man, along with his rival, the fellow Florentine and
client of the Medici, Leonardo da Vinci.
A number of Michelangelo's works of painting, sculpture and
architecture rank among the most famous in existence.[1] His output in
these fields was prodigious; given the sheer volume of surviving
correspondence, sketches and reminiscences, he is the best-documented
artist of the 16th century. He sculpted two of his best-known works,
the Pietà and David, before the age of thirty. Despite holding a low
opinion of painting, he also created two of the most influential
frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the
ceiling of the
Sistine ChapelSistine Chapel in Rome, and The Last Judgment on its
altar wall. His design of the
Laurentian LibraryLaurentian Library pioneered Mannerist
architecture.[2] At the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo
the Younger as the architect of St. Peter's Basilica. He transformed
the plan so that the western end was finished to his design, as was
the dome, with some modification, after his death.
MichelangeloMichelangelo was the first Western artist whose biography was
published while he was alive.[1] In fact, two biographies were
published during his lifetime. One of them, by Giorgio Vasari,
proposed that Michelangelo's work transcended that of any artist
living or dead, and was "supreme in not one art alone but in all
three".[3]
In his lifetime,
MichelangeloMichelangelo was often called Il Divino ("the divine
one").[4] His contemporaries often admired his terribilità—his
ability to instil a sense of awe. Attempts by subsequent artists to
imitate[5] Michelangelo's impassioned, highly personal style resulted
in Mannerism, the next major movement in
Western artWestern art after the High
Renaissance.

Life
See also: List of works by Michelangelo
Early life, 1475–1488
MichelangeloMichelangelo was born on 6 March 1475[a] in Caprese, known today as
Caprese Michelangelo, situated in Valtiberina[6], near Arezzo,
Tuscany[7] . For several generations, his family had been small-scale
bankers in Florence; but the bank failed, and his father, Ludovico di
Leonardo Buonarroti Simoni, briefly took a government post in Caprese,
a small town situated in the Alpe di Catenaia area [8] , where
MichelangeloMichelangelo was born.[1] At the time of Michelangelo's birth, his
father was the town's Judicial administrator and podestà or local
administrator of Chiusi della Verna. Michelangelo's mother was
Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena.[9] The Buonarrotis claimed to
descend from the Countess Mathilde of Canossa—a claim that remains
unproven, but which
MichelangeloMichelangelo believed.[10]
Several months after Michelangelo's birth, the family returned to
Florence, where he was raised. During his mother's later prolonged
illness, and after her death in 1481 (when he was six years old),
MichelangeloMichelangelo lived with a nanny and her husband, a stonecutter, in the
town of Settignano, where his father owned a marble quarry and a small
farm.[9] There he gained his love for marble. As
Giorgio VasariGiorgio Vasari quotes
him:

"If there is some good in me, it is because I was born in the subtle
atmosphere of your country of Arezzo. Along with the milk of my nurse
I received the knack of handling chisel and hammer, with which I make
my figures."[7]

Apprenticeships, 1488–1492
As a young boy,
MichelangeloMichelangelo was sent to
FlorenceFlorence to study grammar
under the Humanist Francesco da Urbino.[7][11][b] However, he showed
no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from
churches and seek the company of other painters.[11]
The city of
FlorenceFlorence was at that time Italy's greatest centre of the
arts and learning.[12] Art was sponsored by the Signoria (the town
council), the merchant guilds, and wealthy patrons such as the Medici
and their banking associates.[13] The Renaissance, a renewal of
Classical scholarship and the arts, had its first flowering in
Florence.[12] In the early 15th century, the architect Filippo
Brunelleschi, having studied the remains of Classical buildings in
Rome, had created two churches, San Lorenzo's and Santo Spirito, which
embodied the Classical precepts.[14] The sculptor
Lorenzo GhibertiLorenzo Ghiberti had
laboured for fifty years to create the bronze doors of the Baptistry,
which
MichelangeloMichelangelo was to describe as "The Gates of Paradise".[15] The
exterior niches of the Church of
OrsanmicheleOrsanmichele contained a gallery of
works by the most acclaimed sculptors of Florence: Donatello,
Ghiberti, Andrea del Verrocchio, and Nanni di Banco.[13] The interiors
of the older churches were covered with frescos (mostly in Late
Medieval, but also in the Early
RenaissanceRenaissance style), begun by Giotto
and continued by
MasaccioMasaccio in the Brancacci Chapel, both of whose works
MichelangeloMichelangelo studied and copied in drawings.[16]
During Michelangelo's childhood, a team of painters had been called
from
FlorenceFlorence to the Vatican to decorate the walls of the Sistine
Chapel. Among them was Domenico Ghirlandaio, a master in fresco
painting, perspective, figure drawing and portraiture who had the
largest workshop in Florence.[13] In 1488, at age 13,
MichelangeloMichelangelo was
apprenticed to Ghirlandaio.[17] The next year, his father persuaded
Ghirlandaio to pay
MichelangeloMichelangelo as an artist, which was rare for
someone of fourteen.[18] When in 1489, Lorenzo de' Medici, de facto
ruler of Florence, asked Ghirlandaio for his two best pupils,
Ghirlandaio sent
MichelangeloMichelangelo and Francesco Granacci.[19]

From 1490 to 1492,
MichelangeloMichelangelo attended the Humanist academy the
MediciMedici had founded along Neo-Platonic lines. There his work and
outlook were influenced by many of the most prominent philosophers and
writers of the day, including Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola
and Poliziano.[20] At this time,
MichelangeloMichelangelo sculpted the reliefs
Madonna of the StepsMadonna of the Steps (1490–1492) and Battle of the Centaurs
(1491–1492).[16], the latter based on a theme suggested by Poliziano
and commissioned by Lorenzo de Medici.[21]
MichelangeloMichelangelo worked for a
time with the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni. When he was seventeen,
another pupil, Pietro Torrigiano, struck him on the nose, causing the
disfigurement that is conspicuous in the portraits of
Michelangelo.[22]
Bologna,
FlorenceFlorence and Rome, 1492–1499
Lorenzo de' Medici's death on 8 April 1492 brought a reversal of
Michelangelo's circumstances.[23]
MichelangeloMichelangelo left the security of
the
MediciMedici court and returned to his father's house. In the following
months he carved a polychrome wooden Crucifix (1493), as a gift to the
prior of the Florentine church of Santo Spirito, which had allowed him
to do some anatomical studies of the corpses from the church's
hospital.[24] Between 1493 and 1494 he bought a block of marble, and
carved a larger than life statue of Hercules, which was sent to France
and subsequently disappeared sometime in the 18th century.[21][c] On
20 January 1494, after heavy snowfalls, Lorenzo's heir, Piero de
Medici, commissioned a snow statue, and
MichelangeloMichelangelo again entered the
court of the Medici.
In the same year, the
MediciMedici were expelled from
FlorenceFlorence as the result
of the rise of Savonarola.
MichelangeloMichelangelo left the city before the end
of the political upheaval, moving to
VeniceVenice and then to Bologna.[23]
In Bologna, he was commissioned to carve several of the last small
figures for the completion of the Shrine of St. Dominic, in the church
dedicated to that saint. At this time
MichelangeloMichelangelo studied the robust
reliefs carved by
Jacopo della QuerciaJacopo della Quercia around main portal of the
Basilica of St Petronius, including the panel of The Creation of Eve
the composition of which was to reappear on the Sistine Chapel
ceiling.[25] Towards the end of 1494, the political situation in
FlorenceFlorence was calmer. The city, previously under threat from the
French, was no longer in danger as Charles VIII had suffered defeats.
MichelangeloMichelangelo returned to
FlorenceFlorence but received no commissions from the
new city government under Savonarola. He returned to the employment of
the Medici.[26] During the half year he spent in Florence, he worked
on two small statues, a child St.
John the BaptistJohn the Baptist and a sleeping
Cupid. According to Condivi, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, for
whom
MichelangeloMichelangelo had sculpted St. John the Baptist, asked that
MichelangeloMichelangelo "fix it so that it looked as if it had been buried" so he
could "send it to Rome ... pass [it off as] an ancient work
and ... sell it much better." Both Lorenzo and
MichelangeloMichelangelo were
unwittingly cheated out of the real value of the piece by a middleman.
Cardinal Raffaele Riario, to whom Lorenzo had sold it, discovered that
it was a fraud, but was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture
that he invited the artist to Rome.[27] [d] This apparent success in
selling his sculpture abroad as well as the conservative Florentine
situation may have encouraged
MichelangeloMichelangelo to accept the prelate's
invitation.[26]

MichelangeloMichelangelo arrived in
RomeRome 25 June 1496[28] at the age of 21. On 4
July of the same year, he began work on a commission for Cardinal
Raffaele Riario, an over-life-size statue of the Roman wine god
Bacchus. Upon completion, the work was rejected by the cardinal, and
subsequently entered the collection of the banker Jacopo Galli, for
his garden.
In November 1497, the French ambassador to the Holy See, Cardinal Jean
de Bilhères-Lagraulas, commissioned him to carve a Pietà, a
sculpture showing the Virgin Mary grieving over the body of Jesus. The
subject, which is not part of the Biblical narrative of the
Crucifixion, was common in religious sculpture of Medieval Northern
Europe and would have been very familiar to the Cardinal.[29] The
contract was agreed upon in August of the following year. Michelangelo
was 24 at the time of its completion.[29] It was soon to be regarded
as one of the world's great masterpieces of sculpture, "a revelation
of all the potentialities and force of the art of sculpture".
Contemporary opinion was summarised by Vasari: "It is certainly a
miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to
a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh."[30]
It is now located in St Peter's Basilica.
Florence, 1499–1505
Main article: David (Michelangelo)

The Statue of David, completed by
MichelangeloMichelangelo in 1504, is one of the
most renowned works of the Renaissance.

MichelangeloMichelangelo returned to
FlorenceFlorence in 1499. The republic was changing
after the fall of its leader, anti-
RenaissanceRenaissance priest Girolamo
Savonarola, who was executed in 1498, and the rise of the gonfaloniere
Piero Soderini.
MichelangeloMichelangelo was asked by the consuls of the Guild of
Wool to complete an unfinished project begun 40 years earlier by
Agostino di Duccio: a colossal statue of
Carrara marbleCarrara marble portraying
David as a symbol of Florentine freedom to be placed on the gable of
FlorenceFlorence Cathedral.[31]
MichelangeloMichelangelo responded by completing his most
famous work, the statue of David, in 1504. The masterwork definitively
established his prominence as a sculptor of extraordinary technical
skill and strength of symbolic imagination. A team of consultants,
including
BotticelliBotticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, was called together to
decide upon its placement, ultimately the Piazza della Signoria, in
front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It now stands in the Academia while a
replica occupies its place in the square.[32]
With the completion of the David came another commission. In early
1504
Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da Vinci had been commissioned to paint The Battle of
Anghiara in the council chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio, depicting the
battle between
FlorenceFlorence and Milan in 1440.
MichelangeloMichelangelo was then
commissioned to paint the Battle of Cascina. The two paintings are
very different: Leonardo depicts soldiers fighting on horseback, while
MichelangeloMichelangelo has soldiers being ambushed as they bathe in the river.
Neither work was completed and both were lost forever when the chamber
was refurbished. Both works were much admired, and copies remain of
them, Leonardo's work having been copied by
RubensRubens and Michelangelo's
by Bastiano da Sangallo.[33]
Also during this period,
MichelangeloMichelangelo was commissioned by Angelo Doni
to paint a "Holy Family" as a present for his wife, Maddalena Strozzi.
It is known as the
Doni TondoDoni Tondo and hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in its
original magnificent frame, which
MichelangeloMichelangelo may have
designed.[34][35] He also may have painted the Madonna and Child with
John the Baptist, known as the
Manchester MadonnaManchester Madonna and now in the
National Gallery, London.[36]

MichelangeloMichelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; the work took
approximately four years to complete (1508–12)

In 1505
MichelangeloMichelangelo was invited back to
RomeRome by the newly elected
Pope Julius IIPope Julius II and commissioned to build the Pope's tomb, which was to
include forty statues and be finished in five years.[37] Under the
patronage of the pope,
MichelangeloMichelangelo experienced constant interruptions
to his work on the tomb in order to accomplish numerous other tasks.
Although
MichelangeloMichelangelo worked on the tomb for 40 years, it was never
finished to his satisfaction.[37] It is located in the Church of San
Pietro in Vincoli in
RomeRome and is most famous for the central figure of
Moses, completed in 1516.[38] Of the other statues intended for the
tomb, two, known as the
Rebellious SlaveRebellious Slave and the Dying Slave, are now
in the Louvre.[37]
During the same period,
MichelangeloMichelangelo painted the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel, which took approximately four years to complete
(1508–1512).[38] According to Condivi's account, Bramante, who was
working on the building of St. Peter's Basilica, resented
Michelangelo's commission for the pope's tomb and convinced the pope
to commission him in a medium with which he was unfamiliar, in order
that he might fail at the task.[39]
MichelangeloMichelangelo was originally
commissioned to paint the
Twelve ApostlesTwelve Apostles on the triangular
pendentives that supported the ceiling, and to cover the central part
of the ceiling with ornament.[40]
MichelangeloMichelangelo persuaded Pope Julius
to give him a free hand and proposed a different and more complex
scheme, representing the Creation, the Fall of Man, the Promise of
Salvation through the prophets, and the genealogy of Christ. The work
is part of a larger scheme of decoration within the chapel that
represents much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church.[40]
The composition stretches over 500 square metres of ceiling[41] and
contains over 300 figures.[40] At its centre are nine episodes from
the
BookBook of Genesis, divided into three groups: God's creation of the
earth; God's creation of humankind and their fall from God's grace;
and lastly, the state of humanity as represented by
NoahNoah and his
family. On the pendentives supporting the ceiling are painted twelve
men and women who prophesied the coming of Jesus, seven prophets of
Israel, and five Sibyls, prophetic women of the Classical world.[40]
Among the most famous paintings on the ceiling are The Creation of
Adam,
Adam and EveAdam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Deluge, the Prophet
Jeremiah, and the Cumaean Sibyl.
FlorenceFlorence under
MediciMedici popes, 1513 – early 1534

In 1513,
Pope Julius IIPope Julius II died and was succeeded by Pope Leo X, the
second son of Lorenzo dei Medici.[38] Pope Leo commissioned
MichelangeloMichelangelo to reconstruct the façade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo
in
FlorenceFlorence and to adorn it with sculptures. He agreed reluctantly and
spent three years creating drawings and models for the façade, as
well as attempting to open a new marble quarry at Pietrasanta
specifically for the project. In 1520 the work was abruptly cancelled
by his financially strapped patrons before any real progress had been
made. The basilica lacks a façade to this day.[42]
In 1520 the
MediciMedici came back to
MichelangeloMichelangelo with another grand
proposal, this time for a family funerary chapel in the Basilica of
San Lorenzo.[38] Fortunately for posterity, this project, occupying
the artist for much of the 1520s and 1530s, was more fully realised.
MichelangeloMichelangelo used his own discretion to create the composition of the
MediciMedici Chapel, which houses the large tombs of two of the younger
members of the
MediciMedici family, Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, and Lorenzo,
his nephew. It also serves to commemorate their more famous
predecessors,
Lorenzo the MagnificentLorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano, who
are buried nearby. The tombs display statues of the two
MediciMedici and
allegorical figures representing Night and Day, and Dusk and Dawn. The
chapel also contains Michelangelo's
MediciMedici Madonna.[43] In 1976 a
concealed corridor was discovered with drawings on the walls that
related to the chapel itself.[44][45]
Pope Leo XPope Leo X died in 1521 and was succeeded briefly by the austere
Adrian VI, and then by his cousin Giulio
MediciMedici as Pope Clement
VII.[46] In 1524
MichelangeloMichelangelo received an architectural commission
from the
MediciMedici pope for the
Laurentian LibraryLaurentian Library at San Lorenzo's
Church.[38] He designed both the interior of the library itself and
its vestibule, a building utilising architectural forms with such
dynamic effect that it is seen as the forerunner of Baroque
architecture. It was left to assistants to interpret his plans and
carry out instruction. The library was not opened until 1571, and the
vestibule remained incomplete until 1904.[47]
In 1527, Florentine citizens, encouraged by the sack of Rome, threw
out the
MediciMedici and restored the republic. A siege of the city ensued,
and
MichelangeloMichelangelo went to the aid of his beloved
FlorenceFlorence by working on
the city's fortifications from 1528 to 1529. The city fell in 1530,
and the
MediciMedici were restored to power.[38]
MichelangeloMichelangelo fell out of
favour with the young Alessandro Medici, who had been installed as the
first Duke of Florence. Fearing for his life, he fled to Rome, leaving
assistants to complete the
MediciMedici chapel and the Laurentian Library.
Despite Michelangelo's support of the republic and resistance to the
MediciMedici rule, he was welcomed by Pope Clement, who reinstated an
allowance that he had previously granted the artist and made a new
contract with him over the tomb of Pope Julius.[48]
Rome, 1534–1546

The Last Judgement (1534–1541)

In Rome,
MichelangeloMichelangelo lived near the church of Santa Maria di Loreto.
It was at this time that he met the poet Vittoria Colonna, marchioness
of Pescara, who was to become one of his closest friends until her
death in 1547.[49]
Shortly before his death in 1534
Pope Clement VIIPope Clement VII commissioned
MichelangeloMichelangelo to paint a fresco of The Last Judgement on the altar wall
of the Sistine Chapel. His successor, Paul III, was instrumental in
seeing that
MichelangeloMichelangelo began and completed the project, which he
laboured on from 1534 to October 1541.[38] The fresco depicts the
Second Coming of
ChristChrist and his Judgement of the souls. Michelangelo
ignored the usual artistic conventions in portraying Jesus, showing
him as a massive, muscular figure, youthful, beardless and naked.[50]
He is surrounded by saints, among whom
Saint BartholomewSaint Bartholomew holds a
drooping flayed skin, bearing the likeness of Michelangelo. The dead
rise from their graves, to be consigned either to Heaven or to
Hell.[50]
Once completed, the depiction of
ChristChrist and the Virgin Mary naked was
considered sacrilegious, and Cardinal Carafa and Monsignor Sernini
(Mantua's ambassador) campaigned to have the fresco removed or
censored, but the Pope resisted. At the Council of Trent, shortly
before Michelangelo's death in 1564, it was decided to obscure the
genitals and Daniele da Volterra, an apprentice of Michelangelo, was
commissioned to make the alterations.[51] An uncensored copy of the
original, by Marcello Venusti, is in the Capodimonte Museum of
Naples.[52]
MichelangeloMichelangelo worked on a number of architectural projects at this
time. They included a design for the
Capitoline HillCapitoline Hill with its
trapezoid piazza displaying the ancient bronze statue of Marcus
Aurelius. He designed the upper floor of the
Palazzo FarnesePalazzo Farnese and the
interior of the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, in which he
transformed the vaulted interior of an Ancient Roman bathhouse. Other
architectural works include San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, the Sforza
Chapel (Capella Sforza) in the
Basilica di Santa Maria MaggioreBasilica di Santa Maria Maggiore and
the Porta Pia.[53]
St Peter's Basilica, 1546–1564
Main article:
St Peter's BasilicaSt Peter's Basilica § Architecture

The dome of St Peter's Basilica

While still working on the Last Judgement,
MichelangeloMichelangelo received yet
another commission for the Vatican. This was for the painting of two
large frescos in the
Cappella PaolinaCappella Paolina depicting significant events in
the lives of the two most important saints of Rome, the Conversion of
Saint Paul and the Crucifixion of Saint Peter. Like the Last
Judgement, these two works are complex compositions containing a great
number of figures.[54] They were completed in 1550. In the same year,
Giorgio VasariGiorgio Vasari published his Vita, including a biography of
Michelangelo.[55]
In 1546,
MichelangeloMichelangelo was appointed architect of St. Peter's Basilica,
Rome.[38] The process of replacing the Constantinian basilica of the
4th century had been underway for fifty years and in 1506 foundations
had been laid to the plans of Bramante. Successive architects had
worked on it, but little progress had been made.
MichelangeloMichelangelo was
persuaded to take over the project. He returned to the concepts of
Bramante, and developed his ideas for a centrally planned church,
strengthening the structure both physically and visually.[56] The
dome, not completed until after his death, has been called by Banister
Fletcher, "the greatest creation of the Renaissance".[57]
As construction was progressing on St Peter's, there was concern that
MichelangeloMichelangelo would pass away before the dome was finished. However,
once building commenced on the lower part of the dome, the supporting
ring, the completion of the design was inevitable.
On 7 December 2007, a red chalk sketch for the dome of St Peter's
Basilica, possibly the last made by
MichelangeloMichelangelo before his death, was
discovered in the Vatican archives. It is extremely rare, since he
destroyed his designs later in life. The sketch is a partial plan for
one of the radial columns of the cupola drum of Saint Peter's.[58]

MichelangeloMichelangelo was a devout Catholic whose faith deepened at the end of
his life.[59] He was abstemious in his personal life, and once told
his apprentice, Ascanio Condivi: "However rich I may have been, I have
always lived like a poor man."[60] Condivi said he was indifferent to
food and drink, eating "more out of necessity than of pleasure"[60]
and that he "often slept in his clothes and ... boots."[60] His
biographer
Paolo GiovioPaolo Giovio says, "His nature was so rough and uncouth
that his domestic habits were incredibly squalid, and deprived
posterity of any pupils who might have followed him."[61] He may not
have minded, since he was by nature a solitary and melancholy person,
bizzarro e fantastico, a man who "withdrew himself from the company of
men."[62]
It is impossible to know for certain whether
MichelangeloMichelangelo had physical
relationships (Condivi ascribed to him a "monk-like chastity"),[63]
but the nature of his sexuality is made apparent in his poetry.[64] He
wrote over three hundred sonnets and madrigals. The longest sequence
displaying a great romantic friendship, was written to Tommaso dei
Cavalieri (c. 1509–1587), who was 23 years old when
MichelangeloMichelangelo met him in 1532, at the age of 57. These make up the
first large sequence of poems in any modern tongue addressed by one
man to another; they predate by fifty years
Shakespeare's sonnetsShakespeare's sonnets to
the fair youth:

I feel as lit by fire a cold countenance
That burns me from afar and keeps itself ice-chill;
A strength I feel two shapely arms to fill
Which without motion moves every balance.

— (Michael Sullivan, translation)

Cavalieri replied: "I swear to return your love. Never have I loved a
man more than I love you, never have I wished for a friendship more
than I wish for yours." Cavalieri remained devoted to Michelangelo
until his death.[65]
In 1542,
MichelangeloMichelangelo met
Cecchino dei BracciCecchino dei Bracci who died only a year
later, inspiring
MichelangeloMichelangelo to write forty-eight funeral epigrams.
Some of the objects of Michelangelo's affections, and subjects of his
poetry, took advantage of him: the model
Febo di Poggio asked for
money in response to a love-poem, and a second model, Gherardo Perini,
stole from him shamelessly.[65]
The openly homoerotic nature of the poetry has been a source of
discomfort to later generations. Michelangelo's grandnephew,
MichelangeloMichelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, published the poems in 1623 with
the gender of pronouns changed,[66] and it was not until John
Addington Symonds translated them into English in 1893 that the
original genders were restored. Even in modern times some scholars
continue to insist that, despite the restoration of the pronouns, they
represent "an emotionless and elegant re-imagining of Platonic
dialogue, whereby erotic poetry was seen as an expression of refined
sensibilities".[65]
Late in life,
MichelangeloMichelangelo nurtured a great platonic love for the poet
and noble widow Vittoria Colonna, whom he met in
RomeRome in 1536 or 1538
and who was in her late forties at the time. They wrote sonnets for
each other and were in regular contact until she died. These sonnets
mostly deal with the spiritual issues that occupied them.[67] Condivi
recalls Michelangelo's saying that his sole regret in life was that he
did not kiss the widow's face in the same manner that he had her
hand.[49]
Works
Madonna and Child
The
Madonna of the StepsMadonna of the Steps is Michelangelo's earliest known work in
marble. It is carved in shallow relief, a technique often employed by
the master-sculptor of the early 15th century, Donatello, and others
such as Desiderio da Settignano.[68] While the Madonna is in profile,
the easiest aspect for a shallow relief, the child displays a twisting
motion that was to become characteristic of Michelangelo's work. The
Taddeo Tondo of 1502 shows the
ChristChrist Child frightened by a Bullfinch,
a symbol of the Crucifixion.[34] The lively form of the child was
later adapted by
RaphaelRaphael in the Bridgewater Madonna. The Bruges
Madonna was, at the time of its creation, unlike other such statues
depicting the Virgin proudly presenting her son. Here, the Christ
Child, restrained by his mother's clasping hand, is about to step off
into the world.[69] The Doni Tondo, depicting the Holy Family, has
elements of all three previous works: the frieze of figures in the
background has the appearance of a low-relief, while the circular
shape and dynamic forms echo the Taddeo Tondo. The twisting motion
present in the
Bruges MadonnaBruges Madonna is accentuated in the painting. The
painting heralds the forms, movement and colour that
MichelangeloMichelangelo was
to employ on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.[34]

Male figure
The kneeling angel is an early work, one of several that Michelangelo
created as part of a large decorative scheme for the Arca di San
Domenico in the church dedicated to that saint in Bologna. Several
other artists had worked on the scheme, beginning with Nicola Pisano
in the 13th century. In the late 15th century, the project was managed
by Niccolò dell'Arca. An angel holding a candlestick, by Niccolò,
was already in place.[70] Although the two angels form a pair, there
is a great contrast between the two works, the one depicting a
delicate child with flowing hair clothed in Gothic robes with deep
folds, and Michelangelo's depicting a robust and muscular youth with
eagle's wings, clad in a garment of Classical style. Everything about
Michelangelo's angel is dynamic.[71] Michelangelo's
BacchusBacchus was a
commission with a specified subject, the youthful God of Wine. The
sculpture has all the traditional attributes, a vine wreath, a cup of
wine and a fawn, but
MichelangeloMichelangelo ingested an air of reality into the
subject, depicting him with bleary eyes, a swollen bladder and a
stance that suggests he is unsteady on his feet.[70] While the work is
plainly inspired by Classical sculpture, it is innovative for its
rotating movement and strongly three-dimensional quality, which
encourages the viewer to look at it from every angle.[72] In the
so-called Dying Slave,
MichelangeloMichelangelo has again utilised the figure with
marked contraposto to suggest a particular human state, in this case
waking from sleep. With the Rebellious Slave, it is one of two such
earlier figures for the Tomb of Pope Julius II, now in the Louvre,
that the sculptor brought to an almost finished state.[73] These two
works were to have a profound influence on later sculpture, through
RodinRodin who studied them at the Louvre.[74] The Bound Slave is one of
the later figures for Pope Julius' tomb. The works, known collectively
as The Captives, each show the figure struggling to free itself, as if
from the bonds of the rock in which it is lodged. The works give a
unique insight into the sculptural methods that
MichelangeloMichelangelo employed
and his way of revealing what he perceived within the rock.[75]

Sistine ChapelSistine Chapel ceiling
Main article:
Sistine ChapelSistine Chapel ceiling
The
Sistine Chapel ceilingSistine Chapel ceiling was painted between 1508 and 1512.[38] The
ceiling is a flattened barrel vault supported on twelve triangular
pendentives that rise from between the windows of the chapel. The
commission, as envisaged by Pope Julius II, was to adorn the
pendentives with figures of the twelve apostles.[76] Michelangelo, who
was reluctant to take the job, persuaded the Pope to give him a free
hand in the composition.[77] The resultant scheme of decoration awed
his contemporaries and has inspired other artists ever since.[78] The
scheme is of nine panels illustrating episodes from the
BookBook of
Genesis, set in an architectonic frame. On the pendentives,
MichelangeloMichelangelo replaced the proposed Apostles with Prophets and Sibyls
who heralded the coming of the Messiah.[77]

MichelangeloMichelangelo began painting with the later episodes in the narrative,
the pictures including locational details and groups of figures, the
Drunkenness of
NoahNoah being the first of this group.[77] In the later
compositions, painted after the initial scaffolding had been removed,
MichelangeloMichelangelo made the figures larger.[77] One of the central images,
The Creation of AdamThe Creation of Adam is one of the best known and most reproduced
works in the history of art. The final panel, showing the Separation
of Light from Darkness is the broadest in style and was painted in a
single day. As the model for the Creator,
MichelangeloMichelangelo has depicted
himself in the action of painting the ceiling.[77]

As supporters to the smaller scenes,
MichelangeloMichelangelo painted twenty
youths who have variously been interpreted as angels, as muses, or
simply as decoration.
MichelangeloMichelangelo referred to them as "ignudi".[79]
The figure reproduced may be seen in context in the above image of the
Separation of Light from Darkness. In the process of painting the
ceiling,
MichelangeloMichelangelo made studies for different figures, of which
some, such as that for The Libyan
SibylSibyl have survived, demonstrating
the care taken by
MichelangeloMichelangelo in details such as the hands and
feet.[80] The
ProphetProphet Jeremiah, contemplating the downfall of
Jerusalem, is an image of the artist himself.

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Michelangelo's relief of the Battle of the Centaurs, created while he
was still a youth associated with the
MediciMedici Academy, is an unusually
complex relief in that it shows a great number of figures involved in
a vigorous struggle. Such a complex disarray of figures was rare in
Florentine art, where it would usually only be found in images showing
either the
Massacre of the InnocentsMassacre of the Innocents or the Torments of Hell. The
relief treatment, in which some of the figures are boldly projecting,
may indicate Michelangelo's familiarity with Roman sarcophagus reliefs
from the collection of Lorenzo Medici, and similar marble panels
created by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, and with the figurative
compositions on Ghiberti's Baptistry Doors.
The composition of the Battle of Cascina, is known in its entirety
only from copies, as the original cartoon, according to Vasari, was so
admired that it deteriorated and was eventually in pieces. It reflects
the earlier relief in the energy and diversity of the figures, with
many different postures, and many being viewed from the back, as they
turn towards the approaching enemy and prepare for battle.
In The Last Judgment it is said that
MichelangeloMichelangelo drew inspiration
from a fresco by
Melozzo da ForlìMelozzo da Forlì in Rome's Santi Apostoli. Melozzo
had depicted figures from different angles, as if they were floating
in the Heaven and seen from below. Melozzo's majestic figure of
Christ, with windblown cloak, demonstrates a degree of foreshortening
of the figure that had also been employed by Andrea Mantegna, but was
not usual in the frescos of Florentine painters. In The Last Judgement
MichelangeloMichelangelo had the opportunity to depict, on an unprecedented scale,
figures in the action of either rising heavenward or falling and being
dragged down.
In the two frescos of the Pauline Chapel, The Crucifixion of St. Peter
and The Conversion of Saul,
MichelangeloMichelangelo has used the various groups
of figures to convey a complex narrative. In the Crucifixion of Peter
soldiers busy themselves about their assigned duty of digging a post
hole and raising the cross while various people look on and discuss
the events. A group of horrified women cluster in the foreground,
while another group of Christians is led by a tall man to witness the
events. In the right foreground,
MichelangeloMichelangelo walks out of the
painting with an expression of disillusionment.

Architecture
Michelangelo's architectural commissions included a number that were
not realised, notably the façade for Brunelleschi's Church of San
Lorenzo in Florence, for which
MichelangeloMichelangelo had a wooden model
constructed, but which remains to this day unfinished rough brick. At
the same church, Giulio de'
MediciMedici (later Pope Clement VII)
commissioned him to design the
MediciMedici Chapel and the tombs of Giuliano
and Lorenzo Medici.[81] Pope Clement also commissioned the Laurentian
Library, for which
MichelangeloMichelangelo also designed the extraordinary
vestibule with columns recessed into niches, and a staircase that
appears to spill out of the library like a flow of lava, according to
Pevsner, ... revealing
MannerismMannerism in its most sublime
architectural form.[82]
In 1546
MichelangeloMichelangelo produced the highly complex ovoid design for the
pavement of the
CampidoglioCampidoglio and began designing an upper storey for
the Farnese Palace. In 1547 he took on the job of completing St
Peter's Basilica, begun to a design by Bramante, and with several
intermediate designs by several architects.
MichelangeloMichelangelo returned to
Bramante's design, retaining the basic form and concepts by
simplifying and strengthening the design to create a more dynamic and
unified whole.[83] Although the late 16th-century engraving depicts
the dome as having a hemispherical profile, the dome of Michelangelo's
model is somewhat ovoid and the final product, as completed by Giacomo
della Porta is more so.[83]

Michelangelo's design for St Peter's is both massive and contained,
with the corners between the apsidal arms of the Greek Cross filled by
square projections.

The exterior is surrounded by a giant order of pilasters supporting a
continuous cornice. Four small cupolas cluster around the dome.

The final years
In his old age,
MichelangeloMichelangelo created a number of Pietàs in which he
apparently reflects upon mortality. They are heralded by the Victory,
perhaps created for the tomb of
Pope Julius IIPope Julius II but left unfinished. In
this group, the youthful victor overcomes an older hooded figure, with
the features of Michelangelo.

Self-portrait of the artist as Nicodemus

The Pietà of
Vittoria ColonnaVittoria Colonna is a chalk drawing of a type described
as "presentation drawings", as they might be given as a gift by an
artist, and were not necessarily studies towards a painted work. In
this image, Mary's upraise arms and upraised hands are indicative of
her prophetic role. The frontal aspect is reminiscent of Masaccio's
fresco of the
Holy TrinityHoly Trinity in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella,
Florence.
In the Florentine Pietà,
MichelangeloMichelangelo again depicts himself, this
time as the aged
NicodemusNicodemus lowering the body of Jesus from the cross
into the arms of Mary his mother and Mary Magdalene. Michelangelo
smashed the left arm and leg of the figure of Jesus. His pupil Tiberio
Calcagni repaired the arm and drilled a hole in which to fix a
replacement leg which was not subsequently attached. He also worked on
the figure of Mary Magdalene.[84][85]
The last sculpture that
MichelangeloMichelangelo worked on (six days before his
death), the
Rondanini PietàRondanini Pietà could never be completed because
MichelangeloMichelangelo carved it away until there was insufficient stone. The
legs and a detached arm remain from a previous stage of the work. As
it remains, the sculpture has an abstract quality, in keeping with
20th-century concepts of sculpture..[86][87]
MichelangeloMichelangelo died in
RomeRome in 1564, at the age of 88 (three weeks
before his 89th birthday). His body was taken from
RomeRome for interment
at the Basilica of Santa Croce, fulfilling the maestro's last request
to be buried in his beloved Florence.[88]

Michelangelo, with
Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da Vinci and Raphael, is one of the three
giants of the Florentine High Renaissance. Although their names are
often cited together,
MichelangeloMichelangelo was younger than Leonardo by 23
years, and older than
RaphaelRaphael by eight. Because of his reclusive
nature, he had little to do with either artist and outlived both of
them by more than forty years.
MichelangeloMichelangelo took few sculpture
students. He employed Francesco Granacci, who was his fellow pupil at
the
MediciMedici Academy, and became one of several assistants on the
Sistine ChapelSistine Chapel ceiling.[40]
MichelangeloMichelangelo appears to have used
assistants mainly for the more manual tasks of preparing surfaces and
grinding colours. Despite this, his works were to have a great
influence on painters, sculptors and architects for many generations
to come.
While Michelangelo's David is the most famous male nude of all time
and destined to be reproduced in order to grace cities around the
world, some of his other works have had perhaps even greater impact on
the course of art. The twisting forms and tensions of the Victory, the
Bruges MadonnaBruges Madonna and the
MediciMedici Madonna make them the heralds of the
Mannerist art. The unfinished giants for the tomb of Pope Julius II
had profound effect on late-19th- and 20th-century sculptors such as
RodinRodin and Henry Moore.
Michelangelo's foyer of the
Laurentian LibraryLaurentian Library was one of the earliest
buildings to utilise Classical forms in a plastic and expressive
manner. This dynamic quality was later to find its major expression in
Michelangelo's centrally planned St Peter's, with its giant order, its
rippling cornice and its upward-launching pointed dome. The dome of St
Peter's was to influence the building of churches for many centuries,
including
Sant'Andrea della ValleSant'Andrea della Valle in
RomeRome and St Paul's Cathedral,
London, as well as the civic domes of many public buildings and the
state capitals across America.
Artists who were directly influenced by
MichelangeloMichelangelo include
Raphael,[89] who imitated Michelangelo's prophets in two of his works,
including his depiction of the great master in the School of Athens.
Other artists, such as Pontormo, drew on the writhing forms of the
Last Judgement and the frescoes of the Capella Paolina.[90]
The
Sistine Chapel ceilingSistine Chapel ceiling was a work of unprecedented grandeur, both
for its architectonic forms, to be imitated by many
BaroqueBaroque ceiling
painters, and also for the wealth of its inventiveness in the study of
figures.
VasariVasari wrote:

The work has proved a veritable beacon to our art, of inestimable
benefit to all painters, restoring light to a world that for centuries
had been plunged into darkness. Indeed, painters no longer need to
seek for new inventions, novel attitudes, clothed figures, fresh ways
of expression, different arrangements, or sublime subjects, for this
work contains every perfection possible under those headings.[91]

a. ^ Michelangelo's father marks the date as 6 March 1474 in the
Florentine manner ab Incarnatione. However, in the Roman manner, ab
Nativitate, it is 1475.
b. ^ Sources disagree as to how old
MichelangeloMichelangelo was when he departed
for school. De Tolnay writes that it was at ten years old while
Sedgwick notes in her translation of Condivi that
MichelangeloMichelangelo was
seven.
c. ^ The
Strozzi familyStrozzi family acquired the sculpture Hercules. Filippo
Strozzi sold it to Francis I in 1529. In 1594, Henry IV installed it
in the Jardin d'Estang at
FontainebleauFontainebleau where it disappeared in 1713
when the Jardin d'Estange was destroyed.
d. ^
VasariVasari makes no mention of this episode and Paolo Giovio's Life
of
MichelangeloMichelangelo indicates that
MichelangeloMichelangelo tried to pass the statue
off as an antique himself.

The Separation of Light from Darkness
The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Vegetation
The Separation of Land and Water
The Creation of Adam
The Creation of Eve
The
Fall of ManFall of Man and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden
The Sacrifice of Noah
The Flood
The Drunkenness of Noah